James Patterson grants Little Shop of Stories for bookmobile

• Daniel Beauregard
• Little Shop of Stories' bookmobile is coming soon

Best-selling author James Patterson recently pledged $1 million to donate to local and independent booksellers as a way to increase awareness of their importance in communities.

In a recent interview with NPR, Patterson said "We're at a juncture right now where bookstores as we've known them are at risk; libraries as we've known them are at risk, publishers are at risk, American literature is at risk... and getting kids reading is at risk."

Diane Capriola, co-owner of Decatur's Little Shop of Stories, agrees.

"The real beauty of what he's doing is he's trying to raise awareness of the importance of independent bookstores," Capriola said.

Little Shop of Stories was one of the independent bookstores to receive a grant of up to $15,000 as part of Patterson's giveaway. Patterson reportedly placed no requirements on how to spend the money. Some bookstores are spending the funds to give their employees raises, others to increase their presence at book fairs - Little Shop of Stories is using the money to buy a bus and turn it into a bookmobile.

"For about a year-and-a-half we've had this idea in our heads of creating some kind of bookmobile - taking an old school bus and just kind of revamping it and turning it into something really fun. We didn't have the cash to do it until now," Capriola said.

Capriola and Dave Shallenberger opened Little Shop of Stories nine years ago. After several years, Capriola said she and Shallenberger soon learned that to stay in business, Little Shop of Stories had to become much more than just a bookstore.

"The thing that we learned is that to survive we can't just sell books," Capriola said. "We've got to create events and really get out there, sharing books with people."

The bookstore focuses primarily on children and young adult books and Capriola said its mission is to turn children into "lifelong readers."

"We're always looking for ways we can extend our reach," Capriola said. "A lot of it is about reaching out to families and not just the individual child but getting parents on board about why reading is so important."

Capriola and Shallenberger hope to further this aim by using the bookmobile for a variety of things including bringing book fairs to local schools, using it to transport authors to speak to children and bringing books to those less fortunate.

"I'm sure there will be a charitable component where we'll be going to needy schools and giving out books," Capriola said.

This isn't the first time a popular author has made an effort to give back to local and independent booksellers, Shallenberger said.

Last year, poet Sherman Alexie offered to work at a local bookstore to create awareness of the importance of independent booksellers. Shallenberger said the idea spread like wildfire.

"It became a big national thing overnight and we had a couple big authors in our bookstore for that day," Shallenberger said.

So far, Patterson has given out approximately $267,000 to 55 bookstores around the country. Shallenberger said he hopes to have a bus purchased and decorated in time for the Decatur Book Festival, which takes place over Labor Day weekend.

Capriola said the possibilities for the bookmobile are endless.

"We're just now realizing that there is so much we can do with the bus," Capriola said.